by Adam Benjamin, Co-Founder & CEO
I have only braved the Black Friday masses once in my life, as I wanted a new TV and the deals were so incredibly good. Instead, I came home with a vacuum and no TV because there were a million people looking at TV's and zero looking at vacuums. As they say, I was "one and done." On the flip slide, my wife, and now our daughter, love the hunt of the day- the upfront product research, the thrill of beating people to the deal, the well deserved snack break two hours in, and then the satisfaction of emptying the bags at the end of the day. We knew this year would be much different and this new "tradition" would be sidelined until next year.
I started thinking about my years of working in the digital space with some of the biggest brands in the world like P&G, Unilever, CVS, AT&T, Pepsico, etc. and how they would have to adjust their marketing, their fulfillment, and overall service. As much as we love Amazon Prime, as a family we continue to support many smaller family-run businesses who may not have the marketing budgets, staff, or abilities to "pivot" their operations like some of the massive brands. We all have local restaurants, bars, boutique jewelry and clothing shops, and toy stores to name a few. Think about these entrepreneurs, the challenges they've faced, how they have had to adjust their businesses this year, and how we can all help each other. We hope an end is in sight, but the reality of it all is that things will continue to be different for quite some time. They need our support and we will do whatever we can to do so.
With that said, for the month of December, UpperCampus is going to highlight small business so that students using our app can better understand what goes into running these companies. If you know any companies willing to answer a few interview questions, we would love to talk to them. And if you have a student at home, or know of any students interested in learning more about what it takes to operate a small to mid-sized business, have them download our app.